An Olympian Effort: NBCUni Plans 5,535 Hours Of Coverage For London Games

The programming across NBC, NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, Telemundo, NBCOlympics.com, two specialty channels, and a 3D platform will eclipse the company’s coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics by almost 2000 hours. On NBC, 272.5 hours are planned, a record for a broadcast network owing to more daytime coverage from London. Overall, it’s the equivalent of 231 days of Olympics coverage, according to the network, which released its plans today. The London Olympics run July 27-August 12.

On the broadcast network, coverage will begin on most weekdays at 10 AM ET/PT and as early as 5 AM ET/PT on the weekends. The primetime program, hosted by Bob Costas will air 8-11:30 PM or midnight ET/PT on most nights. A one-hour late night show will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the primetime program; primetime will be replayed following the late-night show. Al Michaels and Dan Patrick will host NBC’s weekday and weekend daytime coverage, and Mary Carillo will once host the late-night show. Ryan Seacrest, John McEnroe, Bela Karolyi and Carillo will serve as correspondents during primetime coverage.

Online, NBCOlympics.com will live-stream every event and sport for the first time ever, which might soothe critics who don’t like NBC’s tactic of tape-delaying key events in order to show them in primetime.